Well, folks, the domino has fallen.
The St. Louis Rams reached an agreement with No. 1 overall pick Sam Bradford on a six-year, $78 million deal, sources told ESPN on Friday night.
According to the sources, Bradford's deal contains $50 million of guarantees and has a max value of $86 million.
My first reaction when I saw how much money Bradford got was this: "Holy crap."
Last year, Matthew Stafford signed a deal worth a maximum of $78 million. Included in that deal is $41.7 million guaranteed, which is $8.3 million less than what Bradford is guaranteed to receive. All I can say is that this is another reason why I'm glad the Lions drafted their QB last year just because of how much more money they would have had to pay this year. Also, people wonder why the NFL needs a rookie wage scale? This is example No. 35345.
With Bradford signed, you would think it's only a matter of time until the Lions agree to a deal with Ndamukong Suh. Although it'd be nice to have him signed and delivered in time for tomorrow morning's conditioning test, it's more important that he is ready to go for the afternoon practice.
The one hang-up I can envision happening as a result of Bradford getting so much guaranteed money is that Suh's agents will want him to get an amount of guaranteed money that is more than what Stafford got. I highly doubt the Lions would do that, but it seems that one way or another, Suh will be making some serious bank in the next day or so when he signs on the dotted line.